$10,000 USIBELLI DISTINGUISHED AWARD-WINNERS NAMED

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 29, 1997

Fairbanks, Alaska - Recipients of the 1997 Emil Usibelli Distinguished Teaching, Research and Service awards were announced today at a convocation sponsored by Provost John Keating at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Engineering and Science Management Program head Larry Bennett, who has been with UAF since 1968, is the recipient of the Usibelli Teaching Award.

Co-recipients of the Usibelli Research Award are Geophysical Institute professors Davis Sentman and Eugene Wescott.

The winner of the 1997 Usibelli Service Award is art professor Kesler Woodward.

The Distinguished Teaching, Research and Service Awards are funded from a $600,000 endowment made to UAF in 1992 by Usibelli Coal Mine. The endowment funds three $10,000 awards annually. Sentman and Wescott will share the $10,000 prize. Usibelli Coal Mine President Joe E. Usibelli Jr., a 1981 UAF graduate and grandson of company founder Emil Usibelli, presented the awards to the winners.

Professor of engineering management Larry Bennett is considered a pioneer in the development of distance delivery of education within Alaska and across the U.S. through the National Technological University, a consortium of the nation's leading engineering schools delivering graduate courses via satellite.

Bennett is also credited with the successful development of the university's engineering and science management program, and has mentored almost 200 graduate students to successful completion of their studies.

Geophysics professor Eugene Wescott and physics professor Davis Sentman are being honored for their collaborative research efforts. Wescott, who has been at UAF since 1958, is noted for his geophysical research ranging from exploration geophysics to space physics.

Sentman, at UAF since 1991, has had a distinguished career as a physicist and is a leading authority on atmospheric phenomena triggered by lightning. The researchers together have made significant contributions to science, especially their investigations of optical flashes in the upper atmosphere known as Red Sprites and Blue Jets.

Art professor Kes Woodward, on the UAF faculty since 1982, is being recognized for his contribution of time and energy to promote and develop the arts in Alaska. Woodward's paintings have been shown in galleries throughout the U.S. His book "Painting in the North," is considered the definitive work on Alaska painting and the only publication providing an historical overview of the subject.

Woodward has served on the Alaska State Council on the Arts under two previous governors and was recently appointed to a third term by Gov. Tony Knowles.

In 1995, Woodward was responsible organizing a major exhibition and art auction which kicked off the UA Museum of the North's drive to add a fine arts wing. The auction netted more than a quarter-million dollars.

CONTACT: UAF Public Information Officer Debra Damron, (907) 474-7122.

DPD/4-29-97/97-78